Terminal authentication system and method for vehicle network connection

ABSTRACT

A terminal authentication method for vehicle network connection is disclosed. The terminal authentication method includes acquiring unique identification information of a terminal, generating a certificate of network authentication using the unique identification information, copying the generated certificate of network authentication in the terminal, and performing authentication of the terminal access to a network using a network authentication application in the terminal and the copied certificate of network authentication.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.10-2014-0014275, filed on Feb. 7, 2014, which is hereby incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a terminal authentication system andmethod for vehicle network connection.

Discussion of the Related Art

An audio/video navigation (AVN) system used in a vehicle provides avariety of services, such as the Internet, games, music, pictures,videos, and digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), in addition totraffic guidance. Furthermore, the AVN system provides a wirelessgateway function to enable a mobile terminal, such as a smartphone or atablet PC, including a communication device to access a network.

However, if the network is easily accessible through the AVN system, orby using a simple password, unauthorized users may obtain access to thenetwork and a security problem may occur. For this reason, there is aneed for a method that enables only a specific mobile terminal to accessa network using a vehicle communication device.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to a terminalauthentication system and method for vehicle network connection thatsubstantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a terminalauthentication system and method for vehicle network connection thatenable a mobile terminal to use a network through a wired/wirelessnetwork authentication procedure.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the present disclosurewill be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in partwill become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of thedisclosed embodiments. The objectives and other advantages of thepresent disclosure may be realized and attained by the structureparticularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof,as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the present disclosure, as embodied and broadly describedherein, a terminal authentication method for vehicle network connectionincludes acquiring unique identification information of a terminal,generating a certificate of network authentication using the uniqueidentification information, copying the generated certificate of networkauthentication in the terminal, and performing authentication of theterminal access to a network using a network authentication applicationin the terminal and the copied certificate of network authentication.

The step of acquiring the unique identification information may includechecking a media access control (MAC) address of the terminal usingAndroid Debug Bridge and acquiring the unique identification informationaccording to the MAC address.

The certificate of network authentication may be copied in the terminalusing a push command of Android Debug Bridge.

The network authentication application may be controlled to beautomatically installed in the terminal and executed by Android DebugBridge.

The terminal authentication method may further include outputting anauthentication completion message when the network authenticationapplication completes authentication of the terminal access to thenetwork using the copied certificate of network authentication.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a terminal authenticationsystem for vehicle network connection comprises a vehicle communicationdevice including a communication unit to acquire unique identificationinformation of a terminal, an authentication controller to generate acertificate of network authentication using the unique identificationinformation, to copy the generated certificate of network authenticationin the terminal, and to control a network authentication application tobe installed and executed in the terminal, and a terminal to performauthentication of the terminal access to a network using the copiedcertificate of network authentication and the network authenticationapplication.

The unique identification information may be acquired based on a MACaddress of the terminal.

The certificate of network authentication may be copied in the terminalusing a push command of Android Debug Bridge.

The network authentication application may be controlled to beautomatically installed in the terminal and executed by Android DebugBridge.

The terminal authentication system may further include an output unit tooutput an authentication completion message when the networkauthentication application completes authentication of the terminalaccess to the network using the copied certificate of networkauthentication.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the embodiments as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate the disclosed embodiment(s) andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of thedisclosure.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle communication device according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a view schematically showing construction of a terminalauthentication system using the vehicle communication device accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of controlling, by the vehiclecommunication device, network authentication of a terminal according toan embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a method of performing, by the terminalauthentication system, network authentication of the terminal based onexchange of a certificate of network authentication according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. First of all, terminology used in thisspecification and claims must not be construed as limited to the generalor dictionary meanings thereof and should be interpreted as havingmeanings and concepts matching the technical idea of the presentdisclosure based on the principle that an inventor is able toappropriately define the concepts of the terminologies to describe theinvention in the best way possible. The embodiment disclosed herein andconfigurations shown in the accompanying drawings are only one preferredembodiment and do not represent the full technical scope of the presentdisclosure. Therefore, it is to be understood that the presentdisclosure covers the modifications and variations of the embodimentsprovided they come within the scope of the appended claims and theirequivalents when this application was filed.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure.As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or”includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associatedlisted items.

It is understood that the term “vehicle” or “vehicular” or other similarterm as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such aspassenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses,trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety ofboats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles,electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-poweredvehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived fromresources other than petroleum). As referred to herein, a hybrid vehicleis a vehicle that has two or more sources of power, for example bothgasoline-powered and electric-powered vehicles.

Additionally, it is understood that the below methods may be executed byat least one controller. The term “controller” refers to a hardwaredevice that includes a memory and a processor. The memory is configuredto store program instructions, and the processor is configured toexecute the program instructions to perform one or more processes whichare described further below.

Furthermore, the controller of the present disclosure may be embodied asnon-transitory computer readable media on a computer readable mediumcontaining executable program instructions executed by a processor,controller or the like. Examples of the computer readable mediumsinclude, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, compact disc (CD)-ROMs,magnetic tapes, floppy disks, flash drives, smart cards and optical datastorage devices. The computer readable recording medium can also bedistributed in network coupled computer systems so that the computerreadable media is stored and executed in a distributed fashion, e.g., bya telematics server or a Controller Area Network (CAN).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle communication device 100according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The vehicle communication device 100 enables a terminal adjacent to avehicle to access a network, such as the Internet. The vehiclecommunication device 100 is a module included in the vehicle. Forexample, the vehicle communication device 100 may be included in anaudio/video navigation (AVN) system of the vehicle. The vehiclecommunication device 100 may be connected to a component of the vehicleor a component of the AVN system in the vehicle. Meanwhile, the terminalconnected to the vehicle communication device 100 may include asmartphone, a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a digital TV, a desktopcomputer, and/or the like.

The vehicle communication device 100 may include a communication unit110, an interface unit 120, a power supply unit 130, and a memory unit140. The components shown in FIG. 1 are not requisite and are shownmerely for demonstration purposes. The vehicle communication device 100may include more or less components.

The communication unit 110 is a module to communicate with the terminalconnected to the vehicle communication device 100 or an external device.The communication unit 110 may include a wired communication unit 111and a wireless communication unit 112. The vehicle communication device100 and the terminal may be connected to each other via a transmissionline. The wired communication unit 111 may be a module to transmit andreceive signals through the transmission line. The wired communicationunit 111 may be connected to the terminal through various transmissionlines, such as a carrier cable, a coaxial cable, and an optical fibercable. The wireless communication unit 112 may include at least onemodule to enable wireless communication between the terminal and awireless communication system or between the terminal and a network inwhich the terminal is located. For example, the wireless communicationunit 112 may use WLAN, CDMA, LTE, etc. However, the present disclosureis not limited thereto.

The interface unit 120 may connect the terminal or an external device tothe vehicle communication device 100. The interface unit 120 transmitsor receives data to or from the terminal. For example, the interfaceunit 120 may include an earphone/headset port, a data port, and a memoryunit card port. The power supply unit 130 may supply power to therespective components of the vehicle communication device 100 undercontrol of a controller 150. The memory unit 140 may store a program,input/output data, etc. to process and control the vehicle communicationdevice 100. The memory unit 140 may include a flash memory unit, a harddisk, a RAM, and a ROM. The controller 150 may control overall operationof the communication unit 110, the interface unit 120, the power supplyunit 130, and the memory unit 140. In addition, the controller 150 mayperform control and processing related to the vehicle communicationdevice 100. The vehicle communication device 100 may be connected to auser input unit or output unit (including a display unit and an audiooutput unit) of the vehicle or the AVN system to perform input or outputrelated to the vehicle communication device 100.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which a terminal located in a vehicle oradjacent to the vehicle outside the vehicle accesses a network throughthe vehicle communication device 100 will be described with reference toFIG. 1.

FIG. 2 is a view schematically showing construction of a terminalauthentication system 200 using the vehicle communication device 100according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The terminal authentication system 200 includes the vehiclecommunication device 100 and a terminal 300 connected to the vehiclecommunication device 100. The vehicle communication device 100 and theterminal 300 may be connected to each other in a wired or wirelessfashion. Specifically, interface units of the vehicle communicationdevice 100 and the terminal 300 may be connected to each other, as anexample, in a wired fashion through a universal series bus (USB) or aspecific port. Also, the vehicle communication device 100 and theterminal 300 may be connected to each other, as an example, in awireless fashion using near field communication (e.g. Bluetooth).However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

Referring to FIG. 2, the vehicle communication device 100 includes thecommunication unit 110, the memory unit 140, and an authenticationcontroller 160. The communication unit 110 and the memory unit 140 werepreviously described with reference to FIG. 1 and, therefore, a repeateddescription thereof will be omitted.

The communication unit 110 may transmit/receive information regardingnetwork authentication between the vehicle communication device 100 andthe terminal 300. The memory unit 140 may store information or programnecessary for network authentication, such as a network authenticationapplication. In addition, the memory unit 140 may compile and store alist of terminals legally authenticated through an authenticationprocedure. Consequently, a terminal, once authenticated through anetwork authentication procedure, may access a network through thevehicle communication device 100 without any additional authenticationprocedure.

The authentication controller 160 controls an authentication procedurefor the terminal connected to the vehicle communication device 100. Theauthentication controller 160 may be integrated into the controller 150.Specifically, the authentication controller 160 may control acertificate of network authentication corresponding to uniqueidentification information of the terminal to be generated and a networkauthentication application stored in the memory unit 140 that can becalled and transmitted to the terminal 300, such that authenticationprocessing is performed by the terminal.

The terminal 300 may include a communication unit 310, a terminal memoryunit 320, and an authentication unit 330. The communication unit 310performs the same function as the communication unit 110 of the vehiclecommunication device 100, and thus a detailed description thereof willbe omitted. The terminal memory unit 320 may store the certificate ofnetwork authentication and the network authentication applicationreceived from the vehicle communication device 100. The authenticationunit 330 may perform authentication processing using the certificate ofnetwork authentication and the network authentication application storedin the terminal memory unit 320.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of controlling, by the vehiclecommunication device 100, network authentication of the terminalaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The authentication controller 160 of the vehicle communication device100 may check connection between the vehicle communication device 100and the terminal 300 to perform a network authentication procedure ofthe terminal 300 (S300). In the present disclosure, networkauthentication may mean a security procedure of identifying the terminal300 to prevent an unauthorized user from using the vehicle communicationdevice 100. As previously described, the vehicle communication device100 and the terminal 300 may be connected to each other in a wired orwireless fashion. However, the network authentication procedure may beperformed only through wired communication to prevent accessing thevehicle communication device 100 for network authentication based onnear field wireless communication outside the vehicle through vehiclehacking. In a case in which network authentication is possible onlythrough wired communication and the vehicle communication device 100 andthe terminal 300 are not connected to each other in a wired fashion,therefore, the authentication controller 160 may control a messageindicating that it is necessary to interconnect the vehiclecommunication device 100 and the terminal 300 in a wired fashion to beoutput through an output unit of the vehicle communication device 100 oran output unit of the terminal 300.

When the vehicle communication device 100 and the terminal 300 areconnected to each other, the authentication controller 160 may acquireunique identification information of the terminal 300 (S310). The uniqueidentification information is information to identify the terminal 300connected to the vehicle communication device 100. The uniqueidentification information may include hardware-related identificationinformation. Specifically, the authentication controller 160 may check amedia access control (MAC) address of the terminal 300 connected to thevehicle communication device 100 using Android Debug Bridge and acquirethe unique identification information through the MAC address.

The authentication controller 160 may generate a certificate of networkauthentication using the unique identification information of theterminal 300 (S320). The certificate of network authentication isgenerated using the unique identification information of the terminal300. When the certificate of network authentication is copied in anotherterminal, therefore, it is not possible to access the vehiclecommunication device 100 using the certificate of networkauthentication.

The authentication controller 160 may copy the generated certificate ofnetwork authentication in any area of the terminal 300 (S330). In thiscase, it is possible to copy the certificate of network authenticationin the terminal using a push command of Android Debug Bridge.Subsequently, the authentication controller 160 may control a networkauthentication application for authentication of access to the networkthat can be automatically installed in the terminal 300 and executed(S340). The network authentication application is an application thatperforms a network authentication procedure using the certificate ofnetwork authentication. The network authentication application can beinstalled in the terminal 300 using Android Debug Bridge, or via anyother suitable procedure. The network authentication application may beexecuted in a background state.

When the network authentication application installed in the terminal300 completes authentication of access to the network using thecertificate of network authentication copied in the terminal 300, thevehicle communication device 100 may transmit an authenticationcompletion message and a message for disconnection between the vehiclecommunication device 100 and the terminal 300 that can be output throughthe output unit (S350).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a method of performing, by the terminalauthentication system 200, network authentication of the terminal basedon exchange of the certificate of network authentication according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

The vehicle communication device 100 may acquire unique identificationinformation of the terminal 300 connected to the vehicle communicationdevice 100 from the terminal 300 (S400). To this end, as previouslydescribed, a shell utility (e.g. Android Debug Bridge) that checksdevice information of the terminal, copies a file, and installs anapplication may be used.

The vehicle communication device 100 may generate a certificate ofnetwork authentication using the unique identification informationacquired at step S400 (S410). The certificate of network authenticationmay represent a unique certificate of network authenticationcorresponding to the unique identification information. The vehiclecommunication device 100 may copy and transmit the generated certificateof network authentication to the terminal 300 (S420). The transmittedcertificate of network authentication may be stored in any area of theterminal 300 (S430).

Subsequently, the vehicle communication device 100 may transmit anetwork authentication application to the terminal 300 (S440) andcontrol the network authentication application to be automaticallyinstalled in the terminal 300 and executed (S450). The terminal 300 mayexecute the network authentication application such that the certificateof network authentication stored in any area of the terminal 300 iscalled to perform authentication of access to the network (S460).

Upon completing the authentication of access to the network, theterminal 300 may transmit an authentication completion notificationsignal to the vehicle communication device 100 (S470). Upon completingthe network authentication of the terminal 300, wired/wirelessconnection between the vehicle communication device 100 and the terminal300 may be released. In addition, the network-authenticated terminal 300may access the network through the vehicle communication device 100 in awireless fashion.

As is apparent from the above description, according to at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure, only the mobile terminal havingpassed the network authentication procedure described above can accessthe network through the vehicle communication device, thereby preventingunauthorized access to network and enhancing communication security.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that that theeffects that can be achieved through the disclosed embodiments are notlimited to what has been particularly described hereinabove, and otheradvantages of the embodiments will be more clearly understood from theabove detailed description.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the disclosed embodimentswithout departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure.Thus, it is intended that the embodiments cover the modifications andvariations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A terminal authentication method for vehiclenetwork connection in a vehicle, the terminal authentication methodcomprising: acquiring, via wired communication, unique identificationinformation of a terminal; generating, by an authentication controllerof the vehicle, a certificate of network authentication for wirelesscommunication with the terminal using the unique identificationinformation; transmitting, by the authentication controller of thevehicle, the both of the generated certificate of network authenticationfor the wireless communication with the terminal and a networkauthentication application for network authentication of wirelesscommunication to the terminal via the wired communication; performingauthentication of the terminal access to a network by causing thetransmitted network authentication application to be executed in theterminal using the transmitted certificate of network authentication;and allowing the authenticated terminal the access to the network viathe wireless communication.
 2. The terminal authentication methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the step of acquiring the uniqueidentification information comprises: checking a media access control(MAC) address of the terminal using Android Debug Bridge; and acquiringthe unique identification information according to the MAC address. 3.The terminal authentication method according to claim 1, wherein thecertificate of network authentication is copied in the terminal using apush command of Android Debug Bridge.
 4. The terminal authenticationmethod according to claim 1, wherein the network authenticationapplication is controlled to be automatically installed in the terminaland executed by Android Debug Bridge.
 5. The terminal authenticationmethod according to claim 1, further comprising outputting anauthentication completion message when the network authenticationapplication completes authentication of the terminal access to thenetwork using the copied certificate of network authentication.
 6. Aterminal authentication system for vehicle network connection in avehicle, the terminal authentication system comprising: a terminal; anda vehicle communication device including a) a communication unit toacquire, via wired communication, unique identification information ofthe terminal and b) an authentication controller of the vehicle to:i)generate a certificate of network authentication for wirelesscommunication with the terminal using the unique identificationinformation, ii) transmit both of the generated certificate of networkauthentication for the wireless communication with the terminal and anetwork authentication application for network authentication ofwireless communication to the terminal via the wired communication, andiii) causing the transmitted network authentication application to beinstalled and executed in the terminal, wherein the terminal performsauthentication of the terminal access to a network when the networkauthentication application is executed using the copied certificate ofnetwork authentication, and the authenticated terminal is allowed theaccess to the network via the wireless communication.
 7. The terminalauthentication system according to claim 6, wherein the uniqueidentification information is acquired based on a MAC address of theterminal.
 8. The terminal authentication system according to claim 6,wherein the certificate of network authentication is copied in theterminal using a push command of Android Debug Bridge.
 9. The terminalauthentication system according to claim 6, wherein the networkauthentication application is controlled to be automatically installedin the terminal and executed by Android Debug Bridge.
 10. The terminalauthentication system according to claim 6, further comprising an outputunit to output an authentication completion message when the networkauthentication application completes authentication of the terminalaccess to the network using the copied certificate of networkauthentication.
 11. A non-transitory computer readable medium containingprogram instructions for performing a terminal authentication method forvehicle network connection in a vehicle, the computer readable mediumcomprising: program instructions that acquire, via wired communication,unique identification information of a terminal; program instructionsthat generate, by an authentication controller of the vehicle, acertificate of network authentication for wireless communication withthe terminal using the unique identification information; programinstructions that transmit, by the authentication controller of thevehicle, both of the generated certificate of network authentication forthe wireless communication with the terminal and a networkauthentication application for network authentication of wirelesscommunication to the terminal via the wired communication; programinstructions that perform authentication of the terminal access to anetwork by causing the network authentication application to be executedin the terminal using the transmitted certificate of networkauthentication; and program instructions that allow the authenticatedterminal the access to the network via the wireless communication.